THE DREAM IN ACTION

via vadirajcs

I’m pumped that now my Tweets feed directly to Facebook. All the friends that made fun of me for using Twitter are now commenting and joining in conversations around my Tweets and my blog posts that I share on Facebook via Twitter. This is a huge “crossing of the chasm” for Twitter because the “normal people” are now joining in on web based conversations at a rapidly increasing rate.

Sorry this post is so late, I’ve been thinking/working on it for a while. First, I’ll share why you should use Twitter for status updates, then show you how.

9 Reasons Why You Should Use Twitter for Status Updates

I have found multiple reason for using Twitter. I’ve use the service for almost a year and have been able to meet a ton of cool people using the service. I’ve used Twitter for personal and business cases. It’s a phenomenal communication platform that allows for extreme flexibility in communication. Here are my top 9 reasons why you should use Twitter to update your Facebook status.

1. Twitter allows for mobile status updates – Go to the ‘Devices’ tab under your Twitter account settings and give Twitter your mobile phone number. Then SMS or txt message ’40404′ your message. This will update Twitter and now also your Facebook status. Easy peasy!

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2. Stay involved in technology or turn into a grandparent early – Haven’t you ever gotten annoyed at your grandparents (or even parents) for not even caring about a new technology?  Well if you don’t continue to adapt and adopt new technologies, your going to be left in the dust. A huge difference between our generation and theirs is our ability to learn things quickly and continually adapt. Please don’t get old while you’re still young.

3. Twitter’s community is creative and powerful - I’ve learned so much from my Twitter followers. I actively engaged them by asking questions, asking advice, and reengaging with them. I’d like to think I’ve helped as many folks who have helped me. Whether your trying to figure out what movie to watch, what restaurant to eat at, or what the weather is, your Twitter community can be an extremely powerful resource.

4. Travel updates – When I was in China, I was able to send an SMS message to 40404, Twitters number (after I setup the new number in my Twitter profile under ‘Devices’) with “d Mollstar I love you.” and it would send a direct text to my fiance with no charge at all. Using the internet instead of standard text messaging I was able to stay in touch at a fraction of the cost. Another example is my buddy Allen Burt, my partner in LibraryforLaos.org, has been able to keep his friends and family informed of his travels through the South Pacific over the last few months using Twitter.

5. Status updates are the new diary – Who has time to diary these days? Now with short updates on a semi-regular basis you can have a track record of the joy in your life. One sad but powerful story is of  @martin, a well know entrepreneur and networker throughout the tech world. He was an adventurer to the fullest extent and recorded some of his last joys via Twitter. He was taking flying courses at the Santa Monica airport and shared his last great experience before his plane later crashed. His joy and adventure  was shared and saved through Twitter.

6. Get your Google juice going! - It’s more and more important to control what people find when searching your name on Google. Every recruiter now days is going to perform this search on your name, so get a head start in controlling what they find. I recommend blogging too, but that’s for another conversation. Twitter actually has very good Google juice so you can influence what is found by being an active and powerful Twitter user.

7. Learn, share, network, create opportunities – With Twitter growing at a faster pace than even Facebook itself, it is becoming more and more likely that your next job, sale, or even romantic relationship will come from Twitter.  I know this sounds absurd but I know you’ve probably met or encountered people on Facebook that you hadn’t yet met. Then you may have met them and maybe you dated? This will happen more and more from Twitter as it’s popularity increases. I  know it sounds Match.com-ish creepy but just wait and see. Create opportunities from this growing crowd of intelligent and plugged in people.

8. Shaq and Britney do it - Well maybe this isn’t that good of an argument.

9. Twitter is the new filter to good online content – You used to read the newspaper, now you read Google news or maybe even Digg.com if your web hip, but more and more Twitter becomes my source of good news. Think about it, if you get to choose exactly who you follow you have a 100% personalized filter of the type of people you want sending information your way. If they suck, drop’em, if they’re awesome, tell others to follow them (see #followfriday). Twitter is the new content filter than no algorithm can beat.

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7 Steps to Connecting Twitter & Facebook

1. Log into Facebook and search “Twitter” in the search bar (top right)

*don’t let TwitterSync fool you, it’s not what you want.

2. Select the first option, the window below with show and then click, “View Application”

3. I’m sure you’ve done this before, just add the application.

*(Same process as adding iLike, WhereI’veBeen, etc.) You’re giving the Twitter application the right to interact with Facebook and input information into your Twitter profile. Make sure you have a secure Twitter password. Using the same password as you use on Facebook is fine.

4. How do you want Twitter to interact w/ Facebook? I recommend publishing to your Newsfeed but keeping email notification off.

5. Give Facebook your Twitter login information.

6. Allow Twitter to update your Facebook status (I’ll explain why in a minute)

7. Allow Status updates without notification –> Authorize Twitter

*This is the final approval process. Make sure to click the box “Allow Twitter to update my status…”

Now you’re done! Twitter will do the rest for you! No more logging into Facebook for status updates.

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I hope this helps you all in connecting two great technologies, not for technologies sake, but for the purpose of making your life easier and improving communication between friends…after all, that’s the point of all this anyway, right? Please don’t hesitate to ask questions about how to set things up, usually the community is pretty helpful in helping one another but I’ll chime in if need be. :)